Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (“OSA”) affects millions of Americans and currently the gold standard of treatment is continuous positive airway pressure (“CPAP”), Unfortunately, although CPAP is almost uniformly effective in terms of facilitating a patient's ability to breathe while they sleep, the obtrusive, claustrophobic nature of the various facial interfaces translates into many patients refusing to use the units at night. Therefore, although CPAP therapy is effective there is a very low long-term compliance seen in patients utilizing this modality of treatment. Consequently, health care professionals have sought alternative treatments for nocturnal airway obstruction such as surgery of the palate and tongue base and mandibular advancement devices. No treatment has been found to be uniformly effective in ameliorating OSA. Because of the dynamics of airway obstruction, predicting success with any one treatment plan has also proven to be difficult.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is characterized by obstruction to an individual's ability to breathe while sleeping and the two areas of obstruction are the soft palate and the base of tongue. One aspect of the present invention is a nasopharyngeal device used to assist patients who suffer from OSA. The design is intended to be a non-intrusive nasal device that enables the patient to maintain patency of the nasopharyngeal airway by stenting open the palate, which in the patient with OSA closes upon laying down to sleep.